Electric connector member



July 5, 1966 3,259,869

K. J. BATCHELLER ELECTRIC CONNECTOR MEMBER Filed March 12, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 1966 K. J. BATCHELLER 3259869 ELECTRI C CONNECTOR MEMBER Filed March 12, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,259,869 ELECTRIC CONNECTOR MEMBER Kent J. Batcheller, 30 Bush Hill Road, Newton, Mass. Filed Mar. 12, 1964, Ser. No. 351,482 4 Claims. (01. 33947) This invention relates to an electric connector member of the customary male-land-female type except that this member is adapted to engage with another member of identical structure. It is an object of the invention to provide a connector member of this kind which is simple in structure and easy to produce, but is eflicient in operation. For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following description thereof, and to the drawing, of which FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a connector member embodying the invention;

FIGURE 2 is an exploded view, on an enlarged scale, of the mutually engageable parts of two connector members;

FIGURE 3 is a side edge elevation of one of the members shown in FIGURE 2, but with the ears in a different relative position;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of one of the members shown in FIGURE 2;

FIGURES 5 and 6 are sections on the lines 55 and 66 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 7 is a plan view of the members shown in FIGURE 2 when in mutual engagement;

FIGURE 8 is a side edge elevation of the interengaged members shown in FIGURE 7;

FIGURE 9 is a perspective view of a modified form of the invention;

FIGURE 10 is an exploded view, on an enlarged scale, of the mutually engageable parts of two connector members like that shown in FIGURE 9;

FIGURE 11 is a side edge elevation of one of the members shown in FIGURE 10 but with the ears in a different relative position;

FIGURE 12 is a plan view of one of the members shown in FIGURE 10;

FIGURES l3 and 14 are sections on the lines 13-13 and 1414 of FIGURE 12;

FIGURE 15 is a plan view of the members shown in FIGURE 10 when in mutual engagement; and

FIGURE 16 is a side edge elevation of the interengaged members shown in FIGURE 15.

A connector member 10 embodying the invention is illustrated in FIGURE 1, this member having a wire gripping portion '12 and an engaging portion '14 which is in the form of a tongue of generally rectangular shape. The connector is made of sheet metal of uniform thickness, resilient brass or bronze being employed as is customary with this general type of connector. The engaging portion 14 is split longitudinally inward from its extremity to form two ears 16 and 18, the line of split being preferably but not necessarily parallel to the side edges of the tongue. These ears are preferably, but not necessarily, of

equal width. The inner end of the split may terminate in a hole if desired. The ears 16 and 18 are mutually offset in a direction perpendicular to their planes by a distance equal to the stock thickness of the sheet metal of which the members are made. As shown, each of the ears may be offset from the plane of the connecting portion 14 by an amount equal to half of the stock thickness but if preferred, one of the ears can be offset the whole distance or any fraction thereof, the other ear being offset the remainder of the distance. When the split is made and the cars 16 and 18 are offset from each other, they are then biased as indicated in FIGURE 3 so that the extremities are offset from each other by a distance substantially less than the stock thickness of the metal, the planes of the ears thus tending to converge toward the free ends. The ears are then sprung back to parallelism and are biased edgewise to the relative position indicated in FIGURE 2 wherein the mutually adjacent edges 24 and 26 of the ears lap each other, this mutual lapping being maximum at the extremities of the side edges so that the ears converge edgewise toward their free ends. To facilitate the bringing together of two such members into mutual interengagement, one or both of the mutually adjacent corners of the ears at their extremities are cut off as at 30 and 32. When two members are brought together to make a connection, they are made to approach each other in the manner illustrated in FIGURE 2, the ear 16 of each member being made to advance over the ear -18 of the other member. As the members move into engagement, the cut off corners 30 and 32 cam the ears outward so that the lines of split are directly over each other. The resilience of the metal causes the mutually engaged edges 24 and 26 to press tightly against each other, thus promoting a good electrical connection. The up and down biasing of the ears as indicated in FIGURE 3 also causes the ears to press against each other on their broad faces when they are sprung laterally away from the mutually lapping positions which they normally have when not interengaged. This causes pressure against the mutually engaged faces of the ears as well as against mutually engaged edges thereof.

The connector members can be made with three or more cars instead of only two. For example, a member with three ears 40, 42, 44 is illustrated in FIGURES 9 to 16 of the drawing. In making this connector member, the generally rectangular tongue portion is slit in from the end to form the three or more ears. Alternate ears are olfset from one another so as to be in parallel planes spaced by a distance equal to the thickness of the sheet stock of which the members are made. Thus, for example, the middle ear 42 is offset by the stock thickness from the ears 40 and '44 which remain in the same plane with the connecting portion 46 of the tongue, but the cars 40 and 44 instead of the middle ear 42 could be offset from the plane of the portion 46, or all three of the ears could be olfset from the plane of the portion 46, the only requirement being that relative olfset of the alternate ears be equal to the stock thickness. Some or all of the ears are then bent so that their extremities will be relatively offset less than the stock thickness. This is indicated at 48 in FIGURE 11, the oifset at the juncture of the ears with the portion 46 being equal to the stock thickness, but less at their extremities. The member is of resilient material so that when the car 42 is sprung back and held in parallelism with the ears 40 and 44 while the latter are biased toward each other to lap the sides of the middle car 42 as indicated at 50, the interengaging surface areas of the ear 42 with the ears 40 and 44 will be pressed against each other by the resilience of the ears.

To facilitate joining two connector members which are being brought together as indicated in FIGURE 10, the corners at the end of the middle car may be cut off as at 52, or the inner corner at the ends of the ears 40 and 44 may be cut off as at 54, or a combination of these cuts will provide guiding edges to steer each middle car 42 of one member to enter between the ears 40 and 44 of the other member and to wedge those cars sufiiciently apart to enter between them. When the members are thus joined, the-re will be edgewise pressure between the ear 42 of one member and the cars 40 and 44 of the other member, and there will be interfacial pressure between the cars 40, 42, 44 of one member with the ears 44, 42, 40, respectively of the other member since the middle ears 42 do not lap the outer cars 40 and 44 when the latter are wedged apart by the middle ears 42. This is evident 3 from FIGURE 15 which shows'the two members joined to make a connection.

I claim:

1. An electric connector member comprising a piece of resilient sheet metal having a generally rectangular tongue portion longitudinally split from the extremity thereof to form a plurality of ears, alternate ears being mutually offset in a direction perpendicular to their planes a distance equal to the thickness of the sheet metal, said ears being biased so that mutually adjacent edges thereof lap each other, said ears also being tensed to press the lapping areas against each other.

2. An electric connector member as described in claim 1, at least one of the mutually adjacent end corners of said ears being trimmed ofi.

3. An electric connector member of resilient sheet metal having a generally rectangular tongue longitudinally split inward from the extremity thereof to form two ears which are mutually offset in a direction perpendicular to their planes a distance equal to the stock thickness of said sheet a 20 metal, the end portions of said ears overlapping each other 4 and the overlapping portions having substantial interfacial pressure.

4. An electric connector member of resilient sheet metal having a generally rectangulartongue longitudinally split inward from the extremity thereof to form three ears the middle one of which is offset from the outer two in a direction perpendicularto their planes by a distance equal to the stock thickness of said sheet metal, the end portions of said outer ears overlapping the end portion of the middle ear, the overlapping portions having substantial interfacial pressure.

' References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS 218,200 4/1942 Switzerland.

JOSEPH D. SEERS, Primary Examiner. 

1. AN ELECTRIC CONNECTOR MEMBER COMPRISING A PIECE OF RESILIENT SHEET METAL HAVING A GENERALLY RECTANGULAR TONGUE PORTION LONGITUDINALLY SPLIT FROM THE EXTREMITY THEREOF TO FORM A PLURALITY OF EARS, ALTERNATE EARS BEING MUTUALLY OFFSET IN A DIRECTION PERPENDICULAR TO THEIR PLANES A DISTANCE EQUAL TO THE THICKNESS OF THE SHEET METAL, SAID EARS BEING BIASED SO THAT MUTUALLY ADJACENT EDGES THEREOF LAP EACH OTHER, SAID EARS ALSO BEING TENSED TO PRESS THE LAPPING AREAS AGAINST EACH OTHER. 